Emmy Nominations Reactions: Rachel Brosnahan, Christina Applegate, Jared Harris, Ron Cephas Jones, More
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Nominations for the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards were announced this morning in 124 categories. Here are some reactions from nominees.
Comedy Series
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Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
The respective creator and executive producer behind The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino, couldn’t have been more pleased to see how the show performed today, with its 20 Emmy nominations from the TV Academy. As the latter told Deadline, the moment was particularly special, given the knowledge that “second years on any project can be tricky. Especially if people really like the first year, people then come in with sometimes annoyingly high expectations, and we always want to meet them, match them and maybe exceed them,” Palladino added. Sherman-Palladino saud the challenge with the show is fairly basic. “It’s a show about a woman whose life was pretty small and becomes big, so every season, her life has to get a little bigger. Then, as her life gets bigger, that means more extras, and more locations, and bigger venues that she’s playing,” she explained. “Her world has to expand, so the very nature of just producing the show becomes harder and more vast.”
Currently in production on Season 3, the pair revealed a little about what’s to come in the next chapter of Midge Maisel’s journey. “Midge [Emmy nominee Rachel Brosnahan] is going to go on tour, and we’re going to see a little bit of what Midge and Susie’s [Alex Borstein] life on the road might be,” Sherman-Palladino said. “She’s a low-level road comic this year, which is the starting point of when you start to travel — and often, the stopping point of a lot of comics’ careers,” Palladino added. Then there are all those characters whose lives have been “blown off course” by Season 2, either by Midge or their own personal life challenges. “Joel and Abe and Rose [Michael Zegen, Tony Shalhoub, Hinkle] are going to have to figure out a direction to take that in this year,” Sherman-Palladino said, “so everybody is sort of on a journey of exploration and self-discovery.”
Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Speaking with Deadline this morning Rachel Brosnahan talked about how her character represented “so many of the women that I know and love in my own life. She’s brave and complicated and curious and filled with hope and joy that I find inspiring. I haven’t seen many women like Midge on television before. Women who are reinventing themselves In a way that is not always beautiful.” As for what’s to come in Season 3, “Midge is continuing to come into her own as a more modern woman and as a comedian,” Brosnahan shared. She and Susie (Alex Borstein), their relationship is becoming more intimate. They are learning more about the reality of what this path they’ve chosen to walk down together looks like. It’s not always sunshine and rainbows. There are some major triumphs and some not so triumphant moments in Season 3… Its fun to watch Midge and Susie world expand.”
Christina Applegate, Dead to Me
Christina Applegate says she was taken aback by her “totally unexpected” nomination for the Netflix black comedy Dead To Me but that holds to form. “The first time I was nominated was for Friends and it was truly shocking to me. My reaction was, like, ‘You’re telling me I went and had a lot of fun for a few days with some people I really like, and then this happened?’ And then I won and I couldn’t believe it I don’t even think I put too much work into it, to be honest with you.” That’s not the case with Dead to Me, which stars Applegate as Jen, the grieving widow of a hit-and-run victim, and Linda Cardellini as Judy, the new friend she meets in a therapy group. Applegate said the role was an elusive one for her at first. “It was daunting. It’s a show that doesn’t fit into any box. You say comedy, you think one thing. You say drama, you think of one thing. But this show isn’t in either of those boxes. The first season was very challenging and interesting and rip-your-heart out stuff. And now with the second season coming I’m really nervous. I can’t believe we’re almost there there, that we’re about to go back to that world again.”
Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Anthony Anderson, Black-ish
Black-ish star Anthony Anderson picked up his fifth Emmy nomination for lead actor in a comedy series. “There are only five or six of us who received the nomination every year and to be in that conversation for the last five years… It’s a humbling experience,” Anderson told Deadline. “I’m little disappointed that my co-star Tracee [Ellis Ross] wasn’t nominated and the show wasn’t nominated but I will be up there waving our flag and representing.” Anderson didn’t get into specifics about what viewers will see on the upcoming Season 6, but said the “audience can continue to expect from us what we’ve been doing for the last five years. Keeping a pulse on what’s happening in the community and how it affects us.” Regarding this year’s decline in diversity in the marquee Emmy categories, Anderson said, “As long as we continue to move the needle. As long as we continue to tell the stories from people who look like us about people that look like us, that’s telling, that means something. Because of the success of what we’re doing and the success of other shows, we didn’t get to where we are, talking about diversity, overnight. We’re not going to change overnight but we’re making strides. As long as people continue to watch and are interested in the stories that we tell, that’s when change happens.”
Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie
Jared Harris, Chernobyl
Jared Harris shares his Lead Actor nom for Chernobyl with fellow supporting performers Stellan Skarsgård and Emily Watson; three of the HBO show’s 19 nominations. “I’m really happy that it got so many nominations in all those categories,” he told Deadline today. “In basically every category that it could have been nominated in. I think that speaks to the power of the show and the impact that it’s had.” Harris always knew that the role of Valery Legasov in Craig Mazin’s miniseries was a plum part. But the fervour of the reaction surprised him. “I don’t think any of us could say we knew that would happen. I think parts of that conversation were certainly in the DNA of the script, but the idea that it would be taken up in that way, it’s a complete surprise.” It’s also very much a one-shot, something Harris suspects might be part of its success. “Everything doesn’t have to be sequels or prequels or reboots or remakes,” he noted. Mazin had been asked on Twitter if he would do a follow-up involving the disasters at Bhopal or Fukushima, for example. Said Harris, “They’re their own great stories to tell, but for someone else.”
Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie
Joey King, The Act
Boasting 15 years in show business at age 19, Joey King received her first Emmy nomination this morning for her turn in Hulu’s true-crime limited series The Act, “sobbing of happiness” as she took a break from The Kissing Booth 2’s South Africa shoot. For the young star, who transformed herself beyond recognition to play Gypsy—with a shaved head, a prosthetic teeth and a singular speaking voice—the opportunity to bring the abuse victim’s story to life was “one of the greatest honors” of her career to date. “It was such an exciting thing for me to do because it scared me so much. It terrified me, having to tell someone’s real story and do it justice,” King told Deadline this morning. “I didn’t know if I could do it, and I didn’t know if I could do it well.” Acting in spite of her fear, King says that the project took an emotional toll—“but I would do it over, and over, and over again.”
Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Michael Kelly, House of Cards
Michael Kelly’s nomination will be his fourth and final for the role of Doug Stamper since House of Cards came to an end last year. He said, “I had such a love and gratitude for this character, and to be able to go out with a final nomination meant the world to me. It was such a pivotal part of my life for seven years and to be able to say goodbye to him in this way is just perfect.” Rocked by the Kevin Spacey scandal, the show rallied for its final season, making this nomination especially important to Kelly. “This year was really the most surprising and the most emotional for me. With everything we had been through, for Robin [Wright] and I to both be able to go out there and represent this cast and crew who worked so hard and for so long, it’s just gratitude. It’s a great honor.”
Giancarlo Esposito, Better Call Saul
Seven years after receiving his first Emmy nod for his turn as Gus Fring in AMC’s Breaking Bad, Giancarlo Esposito is once again in the fold with his portrait of the menacing drug kingpin—this time, representing the series’ critically acclaimed prequel, Better Call Saul. At work on these series, the celebrated actor has relished the chance to create “an iconic character,” as well as the rare opportunity of exploring one character over disparate periods of time. “To get this nomination today, seven years after the first one for Breaking Bad, is icing on the cake…the bookend to where I started many years ago on Breaking Bad,” Esposito says excitedly, noting the mark his character has made on pop culture. “As an actor playing this guy, there’s not a day that goes by in my life that I’m not referred to as Gus, or called Gus on the street. They’re afraid to approach me, some of them, because they’re afraid of the guy they see on TV.” Tight-lipped about the possibility of his presence in Vince Gilligan’s upcoming Breaking Bad film, Esposito suggests that further details about that project will soon be forthcoming, also taking a moment to tease Better Call Saul’s fifth season, as production winds down. “It’s not going to be what you think. That’s what I can say. It’s never what you think, and to me, that makes a television show,” the actor says. “So, all I can say is, be prepared to be surprised.”
Alfie Allen, Game of Thrones
Known to the masses as Theon Greyjoy, Alfie Allen was one of a handful of Game of Thrones actors to earn their first Emmy nominations for the epic drama’s final season. “Still reeling” from the news as he spoke with Deadline from London, the actor had no real expectation of earning a nom at this point. “[But] it means a hell of a lot to me to be able to share it with that category of actors,” Allen says. Playing a critical role in “The Long Night” — Season 8’s third episode, which depicts a final battle between the forces of the living and the dead — the actor finds now that the experience of shooting the episode was a blur, as is the moment in which he first learned of his character’s fate. “There was so much emotion with everyone. It was emotional as anything,” he reflects. “But I essentially am just so thankful to Dave [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] for giving me amazing stuff to do.”
Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Marin Hinkle, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Sharing a “glorious” summer bike ride with her son on Martha’s Vineyard, Marin Hinkle was having “one of the best days” of her life even before she got word of her first Emmy nomination, for her turn as matriarch Rose Weissman in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. At the same time, today’s bit of recognition has been quite the “cherry on top” for the actress, whose screen career goes all the way back to 1994. For Hinkle, it wasn’t apparent heading into Season 1 of Mrs. Maisel that the Amazon comedy would become the smash hit it now is, “as much as [she] loved the writing, and knew Amy [Sherman-Palladino] and Dan [Palladino] are tried and tested and beloved.” Ultimately, one of the most exciting possibilities the series presented for the actress was the opportunity finally to work on a period show. “I have always been drawn to film and television that gives us a different look upon our own lives through the lens of somebody else’s time period, and I’ve never been fortunate enough to do that,” Hinkle says. “So, when I got cast in this, there was a bit of me that thought, ‘Oh, I’m so lucky.’”
Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Tony Shalhoub, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Earning his second Emmy nom for his work in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel today, Tony Shalhoub certainly is no stranger to television’s biggest night. A three-time Emmy winner who now has been nominated 10 times, the actor was “over the moon” while shooting the Amazon comedy’s second season, “because of how the writers exploded the storyline and took these characters in unexpected directions and locations.” In Season 2, Shalhoub’s patriarch Abe Weissman undergoes a significant evolution, experiencing professional frustrations that lead him to attempt to reinvent himself late in life. For Shalhoub, the way each character in Mrs. Maisel evolves is “one of the major blessings” of the gig. “So often, when you’re doing TV, you’re doing one character, you’re playing one or two colors, and you’re sort of the guy that serves this function,” the veteran actor told Deadline. “But in this one, the characters evolve so rapidly, and in such extreme ways, that it just keeps us all on our toes.”
Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Chris Sullivan, This Is Us
Chris Sullivan spent most of today beneath a temperamental 1954 Chevy Nova in Sacramento so he forgot it was Emmy nomination day. Emmy nominators remembered Sullivan, though, for his portrayal of Toby Damon on This Is Us. “It’s overwhelming,” Sullivan said. “To tell the story like the one we’re telling with such an amazing group of actors it’s an honor just to be part of the group.” As for his character, Sullivan says, “He’s done a lot of growing up, it’s been a big transition from a more childish state of mind to a more grown-up frame of mind.” Sullivan began his screen career more than a decade ago but playing Toby for three seasons is his longest character run. Says Sullivan, “It does become like a relationship in a way.”
Guest Actor in a Drama Series
Ron Cephas Jones, This Is Us
On the heels of a 2018 Emmys victory in the category of Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series, Ron Cephas Jones is back in the running this season, nominated for the fan favorite role of William Hill in NBC hit This Is Us. Killed off in Season 1, Hill is the long-lost father of Randall Pearson (Sterling K. Brown), one of three triplets at the heart of the series, who has since returned to the nonlinear drama in a series of poignant flashbacks. “After the first season, when the character was died off and they brought him back in different flashbacks, the quality never dropped in the scenes they would write for him, so I’m very, very grateful. I guess that’s the main word,” the actor told Deadline this morning. “I’m just overwhelmingly grateful to be in a position to be able to do quality work.”
Guest Actor in a Comedy Series
Luke Kirby, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Portraying iconic stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Luke Kirby was too busy this morning dealing with a malfunctioning phone to realize that he’d received his first Emmy nomination — until he got on WiFi, that is, and a series of angry texts from his colleagues streamed in, wondering where in the world he might be. “It feels really good. I’m sort of surprised and really touched to have a day like today,” Kirby told Deadline. “I don’t think they come along very often.” Reflecting on Season 2, the actor discussed his process when it comes to portraying a real-life entertainment legend in a world of fictional characters. “There’s the fear factor — because there’s only one Lenny Bruce, right? … Going through it, I know there are a lot of people who could find whatever I do upsetting, but the one I was most concerned about was [the comedian’s granddaughter] Kitty Bruce,” Kirby explained. “She has sort of given the work her blessing a bit, which has been an especially good feeling. And quite frankly, being a fan of Lenny Bruce and his work, it’s really great to get to dig into it on a deeper level.”
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